Organizing your community to bring public attention to builder’s bad deeds and seeking assistance from local, state and federal elected officials has proven to be more effective and much quicker for thousands of families. You do have choices and alternatives. Janet Ahmad

Minnesota - Latest News

Minnesota: Possible help for home buyers vs. builders

Friday, 22 February 2008

Bills before the Legislature would add time to file claims of faulty construction and force builders to pay successful plaintiffs' legal feesThe five bills would close loopholes used by builders and their insurers to defeat claims of shoddy construction under the state's Home Warranty Law, bill sponsors and consumer advocates told the Labor and Consumer Protection Committee in a hearing. A builders group called the changes unwise, and some legislators expressed concerns about some language, but the committee advanced the five as a package to the House Commerce and Labor Committee.

Part I: Luxury living or glorified apartment?Buyers paying a premium for lofts, condos and townhouses expect high-quality construction and quiet. But often what they get behind the gleaming surfaces and lofty ceilings is an ordinary apartment in which owners can hear the clack-clack of high heels overhead and smell cigarette smoke from five floors below and moldy odors emanating from electrical outlets... In the past few years, multifamily housing has made up more than half of all new housing built in the Twin Citieis metro area. Last year alone saw almost 10,000 new attached units built, mostly condominiums and townhouses...It becomes a big-stakes game: "At one arbitration, there were 35 lawyers sitting in the room," said Steven Orfield, a Minneapolis acoustics consultant and expert witness in several multimillion-dollar lawsuits.

New home warranty bill advances...fix a loophole in the law that allows builders' corporations to dissolve before the statutory 10 year new home warranty runs out and escape terms of the warranty...the awarding of reasonable attorney fees and costs in litigation relating to new home warranties.

Measure forces builders to honor claims on warrantiesA proposed bill would address a conflict in state law that is proving costly for some home owners who bring warranty claimsagainst their home builders. Rep. Barb Goodwin, DFL-ColumbiaHeights, wants home builders to honor their 10-year warranties even after they have ceased doing business and have dissolved their corporation. Currently builders are dissolving and then coming back under a different name, and when they do that, the warranty is no good on the home, Goodwin said.

Lawmakers move to help homeowners stuck with moldy homesNew legislation in Saint Paul would protect homeowners from bad builders. The problem has to do with warranties on new homes and newly remodeled homes. Those warranties are supposed to last for 10 years, but if a builder goes out of business, those warranties become useless.